28 April 2024, 17:55 | #1 |
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What I miss about printed manuals
The illustrations in them
Some examples from the Paladin 2 manual: |
28 April 2024, 19:39 | #2 |
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Thanks to HOL for that. A really useful and significant ressources from there (amongst many others )
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29 April 2024, 06:00 | #3 |
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I think this one fits a Monday morning:
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02 May 2024, 13:13 | #4 |
Into the Wonderful
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I also miss the smell.
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02 May 2024, 18:17 | #5 |
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02 May 2024, 20:33 | #6 |
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Printed manuals were (and still are) fantastic !
Much easier to look at a manual and check something if you're away from a monitor or other display device. As others have already said - The smell is amazing. The newer manuals today are a very poor substitute for a proper manual Especially where they essentially say - check out the PDF or online manual give you a link to it, and have some pretty graphics. Very dissapointing |
02 May 2024, 20:39 | #7 |
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Even worse is when the manual for the hardware that came with your brand new machine is not actually among the 15 on the manufacturer's site. And even when you find the manual elsewhere it does not actually have the instructions for turning off the unwanted anti-features, they appear to be completely undocumented :-(
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03 May 2024, 00:24 | #8 |
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17 July 2024, 18:20 | #9 |
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I remember once taking the Midwinter manual to my grandparents house to keep me occupied for 5-6 hours.
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17 July 2024, 20:44 | #10 |
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And ring bound manuals were the best. They could lie flat while you worked/gamed
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17 July 2024, 21:59 | #11 |
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The Ultima manuals and cloth maps and also Wizardry manuals were just amazing to my teenage self
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17 July 2024, 22:48 | #12 |
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Gunship 2000 manual was a good read.... felt like you could fly a real Apache afterwards
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18 July 2024, 06:11 | #13 |
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18 July 2024, 10:00 | #14 |
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A lot of companies used to make an effort with manuals, MicroProse manuals were generally excellent for example. The manual for F1GP definitely boosted my understanding and enjoyment of the real sport, as well as the game. Detailed, well-written and informative. Civilization's really explains the game clearly and gradually (though Civ's got a reasonable inbuilt tutorial and knowledge base as well, unusually for the time, though at a cost of some disk swapping).
Generally though, having a physical manual you can look at without having to window away from the game makes it so much easier to learn - ideally I'll get hold of the manual before attempting to learn such a game. No wonder it's mostly action games that have the most votes on LemonAmiga, despite sims and strategy games often selling really well in the day, they're generally much easier to learn without a manual. UK companies weren't so strong for 'feelies', all I can think of was the free Chupa Chups lolly with Zool and the sachet of ketchup with Bill's Tomato Game. |
18 July 2024, 18:47 | #15 |
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I guess it depends what you are looking for in a manual. They were very detailed and well designed. I can't say that I would read them for fun though The Amberstar manual on the other hand... I guess I finally understood the difference between a Nerd and a Geek
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18 July 2024, 21:28 | #16 |
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I miss the taste. Digital just doesn’t have the same flavor.
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19 July 2024, 05:31 | #17 |
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19 July 2024, 22:21 | #18 |
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Yeah, the Microprose manuals were amazing.
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19 July 2024, 23:01 | #19 |
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After buying a game you could read the manual on the way home. I read them on the train and raised my anticipation.
Just don't do this if you drive youself. |
20 July 2024, 02:34 | #20 |
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Especially for the productivity software as well, Final Writer and Vista Pro had great manuals, I loved reading them while away to get ideas on how to use the software better. I really miss those days.
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